By Henry Ukazu

Greetings Destiny Friend,

In the journey of life, everyone’s goal and desire is to constantly elevate their game. Elevating games means several things to different persons. To some, it is going up the ladder of success, while to others, it can be stepping up their game plan by scaling it up. Most of us are driven to succeed, yet it is amazing how many of us view the process of getting to where we want to go as a chore, rather than as the greatest, most fulfilling adventure of a lifetime.

The pursuit of success is our greatest gift, as it is exactly what develops our character and makes our lives extraordinary. When we have a goal in mind, we are instantly purposed. Succeeding comes down our mindset. Our mindset must be driven to succeed, to sacrifice and to have the resiliency and patience to chart our path.

In today’s business world, the only entities that will stay relevant are businesses and people who are willing go the extra mile to gain not only theoretical knowledge, but practical knowledge through learning, unlearning and relearning. In an evolutionary point of view, those who are not adaptable to change will not survive. This is the most reliable way of elevating your game. It’s quite unfortunate many corporate organizations don’t take time to learn contemporary skills and certification which will enable them to be ahead of their competitors. The same philosophy is applicable to progressive beings who don’t take time to improve themselves. When you elevate your game plan, opportunities will locate you. This is because you have set yourself apart from your contemporaries.

In elevating your game, it is important to mind who you spend time with, your network of friends, the books you read, the associations/organizations you relate with, and most especially, your mindset. It is instructive to note that you cannot achieve more than your imaginations can assimilate. According to Henry Ford, if you think you can and if you think you can’t, either way you’re right. It is pertinent to note that who you spend your life with will determine how your life will be. You cannot hang out with chicken and expect to soar. Isn’t it true that your friends can make or mar you? It is widely believed that, if you hang out with nine millionaires, you’ll be the next millionaire. Therefore, today, I charge you to look at your friends and see where you are likely to be in five years.

You can’t be doing the same thing over and over again and expect to get a different result. Always make it a point of duty to set new record for yourself. In setting a record, you have to be on the lookout for certain qualities you’ll like to learn. You can also check out the qualities you can learn from your friends. Whatever qualities your friends have is likely going to rub off on you. Just like spirits are transferable, bad friends can influence you with their character

Set Boundaries

In order for you to elevate your game, you need to set boundaries. For instance, If you’re going to reach your highest potential, you have to step up your game by raising the bar for only a select group of people who identify and share in your vision. You need to ask yourself hard questions on what you really want. Inferior minds are always concerned with what they’ll lose if they cut off from certain boundaries/person. They fail to ask themselves, like what is important to them? Money, fame, value or vision. If you are among these categories of people, who always ask what if I lose my business? I have a simple question for you, what if you miss your destiny?

When you’re in the process of elevating your game, what you’re unwilling to separate from, will continue to follow you. The law of the group says, we associate with people with the way we see ourselves. Happy people hangout out with happy people. What most people don’t know and understand is that twenty years from now nobody will care about your friends. It’s not about quantity if your friends but quality. A one loyal and impactful friend is better than ten general friends.

You shouldn’t apply sentiment in business. Don’t mix family and business together. It’s not a good business idea to do business with only people associated/connected with you, because they may not have the same spirit unlike strangers. Treat them with respect but relate from a distance.

In the journey of life, your joy is your joy, none can share it with you. What this really means is that your success and failure lies with you. If you don’t get the wrong people out, the right people won’t come.

How Can We Elevate Our Game

It is generally believed that one’s entrepreneurial journey won’t be such a grind if they learn to take joy in your growth along the way.

1.      Start a personal project. Define a specific goal/project to realize in a specific period. It should be something that you absolutely feel is yours.

2.      Get trusted advisors. It is time for you to stop taking suggestions from anyone who has an opinion. Search for a mentor who has the expertise in the industry you are passionate about.

3.      Read as vast as you can. Trying to have knowledge about almost every aspect of life. In that way, it makes you to position yourself very well.

4.      Run Your Race

To get to our next level we must focus on our own race. We must not succeed for anyone but ourselves. We must not pursue success to show up, get revenge, or take someone down that we fear is better. The reason race horses have blinders on their eyes is so they don’t get distracted by the other horses when they’re racing. The blinders do not allow the horse to see anything but what is in front of them. It forces the horse to stay focused on their own race. We must do the same thing. We all saw what happened in the Olympics with the South African swimmer and Michael Phelps. The South African was watching Phelps, and Phelps was watching the finish line. It’s no wonder Phelps won. We must each focus on our own finish line.

5.       Keep the faith.

To elevate our game, we must always hold a vision of the next step in our process. The vision we hold is the picture of success we chase. We must drive, dig, grind and then let go, and have faith, as we witness how the results of our actions land. Every single day our eyes open in the morning, we must make sure we’re clear about what we want. We each have control over how hard and how smart we work; the rest comes down to having the faith that our efforts will pay off in the ways we want. The large majority of successful people work from faith. Faith is the energy that funds belief. Without belief, success isn’t a possibility.

6. You must believe.

The more we push ourselves beyond our perceived limits, the more we expand our belief in ourselves. This is exactly how we elevate to the next level. If we see a door that has a sign that says “limit,” “fear,” “I can’t,” “its not possible,” or “who are you kidding?” on it, we must take it upon ourselves to push through every single one of those doors. The majority of the time we will find that the signs on those doors were lies we’ve been telling ourselves. When we walk through them and achieve the “impossible,” we build our character and greatly increase the confidence we have in ourselves. The more confident we are, the more we elevate our game.

7. Be a team player.

One of the most important ways to elevate our game is to be inclusive. Success is a team sport. There’s an  African proverb that says if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to far, go with a team. If we are selfish, and we try and hoard or hide our success, we won’t get nearly as far as when we choose to include others in achieving our goals. It’s teamwork that makes the dream work. When we’re on our mission and we see anyone on our team wearing thin, we must partner up and bring them along, and expect the same in return. We must drop our egos, and ask for help whenever and wherever necessary. We are much more resilient when we have a community of support to turn to.

What are you doing to elevate your game?

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success. He can be reached via henrous@gmail.com